28 October 2022
We reached a milestone with our website project this month when our news section was moved to the new site. We have now started work on making the site easy to navigate and accessible, and our information clear and simple to understand.
We're currently looking at 3 sections:
- bins, recycling and waste
- jobs careers and training
- roads and pavements.
In this post, we'll be talking about the work we're doing to improve the navigation for roads and pavements. This is where people can find out about roadworks, or report issues with roads and pavements, such as potholes or obstructions. It's also where you can apply for licences and applications such as a dropped kerb or licenses for a skip.
Before we talk about the website content it's worth going back and looking at the work that has been done to improve the reporting and applying element. We had a legacy form called Report a defect. When it was first set up, it seemed like a good idea to have one form to do everything - a 'one stop shop' for highways issues. Over time, it became clear that people were finding it hard to use.
Feedback indicated that users found it confusing and they struggled to find the right form, and reports were taking longer to reach the right service, causing delays.
Over the last year we have created new forms for several of these processes, and these have been added to relevant pages on the website. We haven't, until now, looked at how these pages are structured or considered the user journey from search or navigation to successfully submitting a form.
As part of our of content discovery work on this section, we've identified that the way this section of the website is structured is confusing and provides a poor user experience, especially for anyone using a mobile device. We're using something called a tree test to help us improve the navigation. This way we can test our assumptions with users and identify any issues with our proposed structure.
You can take part in our tree test by visiting Roads and pavements.